i own an el camino,350 V8,the carburetor was changed from 4 barrel to 2. will new carb, an aftermarket, help?

Question

if i bought a new carburetor, say an edelbrock or holley, will my car burn more fuel? its already a gas guzzler as it is, but the carb is old and not properly adjusted, i suppose.. im thinkin that if a buy a new one, 2 barrel, that it might improve performance and fuel efficiency? will that happen?

Answer 1

If it has a 350 it will never be as fuel efficient as you want it to be. That is a V8 in a very heavy vehicle. If you are getting 15 miles to the gallon, that is about normal. I would think that a 4 barrel would get a little better than a two barrel, provided you did not open the secondaries on the 4 barrel. The two barrel will probably be jetted a little larger, to provide more fuel at wide open throttle. Drive the 4 barrel with common sense and that is going to provide your best fuel economy.

Answer 2

The answer depends on how you will be driving the vehicle. If it is performance you want, I'd go with a 4 barrel carb. As long as you don't put your foot in it too much, you'll still get decent gas MPG, plus you have the extra power available if needed. A 2- barrel is OK if it's just going to be a normal daily driver, but if that's what you want, I wouldn't waste the money on a new one; I'd take the existing one and adjust it properly....perhaps remove , clean & replace it, along with new gaskets. Have a good mechanic check it out and give you his opinion. Also run a bottle of good carb cleaner through your next tank of gas; you might be surprised how that can help.

Hope this info helped.

Answer 3

A correctly tuned four barrel is likely to be more fuel efficient than a trashed two barrel. The main reason the factory sold V8's with two barrel carburetors was that the carbs were cheaper, from what I hear.

Whatever you do, I would recommend against getting a rebuilt or remanufactured carb from a typical parts store. A lot of them somehow manage to be worse than rebuilding the carb yourself in your basement. Even if you've never rebuilt a carb before.

Answer 4

for every day driving, there will be no better soultion than getting a new 650 cfm edelbrock carb w/ electric choke from your local auto store or from summit racing. definitley stay with the 4 barrel though, the guys are all right about fuel economy. all the power you need and the great dependability of the edelbrock name.

Answer 5

if u have a four barral its better on fuel rebulid it or replace it to go to a 2 barrel ull also have to replace the manifold extra work and cost and ull find 2 barrel will use more fuel under normal driveing conditions and ull also loose the power when need a 4 barral carb has the power but is better on fuel under normal conditions

Answer 6

The carboraters are set by the company sometimes. I would suggest buying the carborator putting it on the car and have the settings channged by a good mechanic.